Key Largo

Detectives are investigating the death of a Key Largo man whose body was found early Saturday alongside U.S. 1 near Mile Marker 99. Gerardo Ceballos, 52, was discovered about 7:45 a.m. about four feet from the roadway of the busy Overseas Highway, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. There were no obvious signs of injury. Ceballos's keys, cell phone and wallet were still in his possession, said sheriff's office spokeswoman Becky Herrin. The county medical examiner will perform an autopsy.

A record number of American crocodiles hatched in Everglades National Park last summer, another hopeful sign for a species that had nearly disappeared from Florida 30 years ago. Scientists from the University of Florida caught, marked and released 962 hatchlings, up from 554 last summer and a huge leap from the low point of 18 in 1981. Frank Mazzotti, UF professor of wildlife ecology, said the latest increase may have been the result of work in the 1980s and '90s to plug canals that had allowed saltwater to invade the Everglades and ruin the crocs' nesting habitat.

An intriguing mystery that lay on the sea floor off Key Largo for more than 100 years finally has been solved by researchers, who identified it as the skeletal remains of the British steamship Hannah M. Bell. It took three years of detective work for maritime archeologist Matthew Lawrence to finally put a name on the wreckage at one of the most popular and accessible dive sites in the Florida Keys. Helping him solve the mystery were scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and volunteers from an African-American scuba divers group.

A unique collection presents a different perspective of the state in "Florida Photography. " As you walk through the exhibit at the Sunrise Civic Center Art Gallery, don't expect to see flamingos and beaches. Instead, you can take in the rockscapes of Stephen Mack and the powerful bond captured by Melisa Caprio during a child's interaction with a dolphin. Over the last 10 years, Mack has gone to construction areas, rock pits and home development sites with his equipment. It all started with "South Florida Volcano.

The scence of an accident on U.S. 1 in Key Largo involving a dump truck that flipped over and spilled its load of gravel has been cleared, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said Thursday afternoon. Two other vehicles were in the accident Thursday morning at Mile Marker 99 that left at least two people injured. Northbound traffic was flowing on the main highway through the Florida Keys, but traffic was still very slow in southbound lanes as clean-up efforts continued, said Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's office.

Why did the 11-foot python cross the Overseas Highway? The answer to that may never be known, but biologists will have time to study the snake after Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy Bryan Cross spotted the big reptile Friday as it slithered over the roadway near the 105 mile marker about 11 p.m. Cross said he followed the snake into a heavily wooded lot and called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Officers were able to find and capture the snake without injuries to themselves or the critter, said FWC Officer Robert Dube.

A Miami man and woman were arrested and charged Sunday night with criminal mischief, after they broke into a Key Largo home to 'make out,' police said. Here is what Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, said led to the arrest: A neighbor called the Sheriff's Office just after 9 p.m. to report two people breaking in to the vacant home on Lower Matecumbe Road in Key Largo. When deputies arrived on the scene, they found a window broken and the door unlocked at the stilt home.

A Monroe County Sheriff's deputy was killed Tuesday night when her patrol car crashed while she was on her way to the location of another deputy who could not be reached on his police radio, according to officials. Deputy Melissa Powers was driving north on U.S. 1 just in Key Largo when she was involved in a single vehicle accident shortly before 10:30 p.m. Details about the accident were not immediately available but officials said Powers was pinned inside her vehicle and had to be extricated.

A man who told the Monroe County Sheriff's Office that he is a Pembroke Pines business owner was arrested Tuesday and accused of battering an ex-girlfriend who lives on Key Largo. Robert Burns, 53, told deputies he owns an entity called Burns and Burns Company on South Flamingo Road. He was held Tuesday in a Key West jail in lieu of $45,000 bond and also was charged with grand theft auto, burglary, petit theft and obstructing arrest without violence. The former couple fought while she was trying to clean and things escalated to physical violence that left the woman bleeding from her face, according to an arrest report.

The phone rang just before 6 p.m., as Yodanis Cruz Rojas and a co-worker were locking up the Smiley Dental office in a strip mall in southwestern Houston. It was the father of her two youngest daughters, Noel Sosa Ruiz, who'd been calling all day, trying to win her back. Two weeks earlier, she'd packed up her three daughters and moved out while he was on an errand in Central Florida, picking up a van. Cruz, a 29-year-old Cuban immigrant with curly brown hair, had taken him back before, but had vowed to hold her ground this time.

Florida poachers can be pretty creative. The problem is that after the individuals are caught, the devices they used for their illegal efforts often continue to impact marine resources. That's why a team from NOAA Fisheries is now in the Keys searching for and removing building materials from the water used in a large lobster poaching operation. Instead of traps, the operation used what are known as casitas, which is Spanish for little houses. Made from cinder blocks, lumber and sheets of metal, casitas have been described by NOAA marine habitat restoration specialist Sean Meehan as looking like coffee tables that are six inches high.

They lived through 13 harrowing hours of floating and swimming, staying as close as they could to shore to find someone who might rescue them. Just before 7 a.m. Saturday, after Sean McGovern and Mellisa Morris had survived the night in the dark ocean, birds flew above them and unknowingly became their key to being found. The couple had drifted all the way from Key Largo. They were rescued when four fishermen found them in the water seven miles off the Hallandale Beach shore.

Five years ago this December, I took a "climate-change" tour of the Florida Keys. It wasn't the most idyllic of excursions, even if it was time well spent away from the office. Seeing the impact rain and high tide can have on the Keys was eye-opening. I got an update this week, albeit over the phone. I wish that after years of being on the front lines of warming temperatures and rising seas that Monroe County officials had found the magic bullet to curb the effects of flooding and salt-water incursion.

A small earthquake centered off the north coast of Cuba shook windows and rattled some residents of the Florida Keys early Sunday, but apparently caused no damage. "I wasn't even sure it was an earthquake," said Milena Donaldson, who had just arrived for the 7 a.m. start of her at work day at Casa Marina, a Key West resort, when she felt what she described as a slight vibration. "I thought I might have imagined it. " The 4.7 magnitude quake, at a depth of 6 miles, occurred at 7:12 a.m. about 17 miles northwest of Corralillo, Cuba, according to Paul Caruso, a geophysicist at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center.

Original post | 5:44 p.m. Updated | 6:37 p.m. President Barack Obama visits South Florida on Friday, accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama. They plan to visit a Miami-Dade County school to discuss, as the White House explained “how a quality education has never been more important to economic success in this country.” Republicans have other ideas. Former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, a Lighthouse Point Republican, said the president should meet with members of the South Florida Venezuelan community, which is concerned about the anti-government protests and government repression in their home country.

The FBI released new photos of a man suspected of robbing a bank in Key Largo Jan. 23, escaping to Miami in a hijacked boat, then disap-pearing. Elio Exposito, 39, is accused of robbing the Community Bank in Key Largo, according to the FBI. Exposito, who is 6 feet tall, is thought to be in Miami or Naples, or in North Carolina. He is considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information is asked to call 305-471-8477.

The Pompano Beach Aquatic Center was transformed into a Christmas holiday festival Dec. 14 as the Pompano Piranhas swim club hosted its annual Santa Claus Meet. More than 1,000 spectators attended the popular event and cheered on the 375 swimmers who came from Key Largo to Jupiter. The main attraction of the meet was a special visit from Santa Claus, who gave his reindeer a rest by flying over the Aquatic Center in a helicopter. Pompano Beach Mayor Lamar Fisher opened the ceremonies by announcing the arrival of Santa Claus, who later came and handed out candy canes to the swimmers.

Here's a story that illustrates why good driving skills are so essential. When a Key Largo couple was mistakenly shipped 11-pounds of pot to their rental home in Louisiana, they stuck the unopened luggage in their trunk and decided to deal with the mystery suitcases when they got back to the Key, deputies said, reports WTVJ NBC News-6 in Miami. Maybe they should thank their lucky stars they weren't pulled over on a traffic violation during their roughly 1,000-mile trek to Florida.